To enable ALSA support you need at least to build the kernel with primary sound card support (CONFIG_SOUND). Since ALSA can emulate OSS, you don’t have to choose any of the OSS modules.
Enable “OSS API emulation” (CONFIG_SND_OSSEMUL) and both OSS mixer and PCM supports if you want to run OSS applications with ALSA.
If you want to support the WaveTable functionality on cards such as SB Live! then you need to enable “Sequencer support” (CONFIG_SND_SEQUENCER).
To make ALSA debug messages more verbose, enable the “Verbose printk” and “Debug” options. To check for memory leaks, turn on “Debug memory” too. “Debug detection” will add checks for the detection of cards.
Please note that all the ALSA ISA drivers support the Linux isapnp API (if the card supports ISA PnP). You don’t need to configure the cards using isapnptools.
The user can load modules with options. If the module supports more than one card and you have more than one card of the same type then you can specify multiple values for the option separated by commas.
The core ALSA module. It is used by all ALSA card drivers. It takes the following options which have global effects.
The PCM OSS emulation module. This module takes options which change the mapping of devices.
For example, when dsp_map=2, /dev/dsp will be mapped to PCM #2 of the card #0. Similarly, when adsp_map=0, /dev/adsp will be mapped to PCM #0 of the card #0. For changing the second or later card, specify the option with commas, such like dsp_map=0,1.
nonblock_open option is used to change the behavior of the PCM regarding opening the device. When this option is non-zero, opening a busy OSS PCM device won’t be blocked but return immediately with EAGAIN (just like O_NONBLOCK flag).
This module takes options which change the mapping of devices. similar to those of the snd-pcm-oss module.
Each of top level sound card module takes the following options.
Module for AdLib FM cards.
This module supports multiple cards. It does not support autoprobe, so the port must be specified. For actual AdLib FM cards it will be 0x388. Note that this card does not have PCM support and no mixer; only FM synthesis.
Make sure you have sbiload from the alsa-tools package available and, after loading the module, find out the assigned ALSA sequencer port number through sbiload -l.
Example output:
Port Client name Port name
64:0 OPL2 FM synth OPL2 FM Port
Load the std.sb and drums.sb patches also supplied by sbiload:
sbiload -p 64:0 std.sb drums.sb
If you use this driver to drive an OPL3, you can use std.o3 and drums.o3 instead. To have the card produce sound, use aplaymidi from alsa-utils:
aplaymidi -p 64:0 foo.mid
Module for sound cards based on Analog Devices AD1816A/AD1815 ISA chips.
This module supports multiple cards, autoprobe and PnP.
Module for sound cards based on AD1848/AD1847/CS4248 ISA chips.
This module supports multiple cards. It does not support autoprobe thus main port must be specified!!! Other ports are optional.
The power-management is supported.
Module for Analog Devices AD1889 chips.
This module supports multiple cards.
Module for ALi M5451 PCI chip.
This module supports one chip and autoprobe.
The power-management is supported.
Module for sound cards based on Avance Logic ALS100/ALS120 ISA chips.
This module supports multiple cards, autoprobe and PnP.
The power-management is supported.
Module for Avance Logic ALS300 and ALS300+
This module supports multiple cards.
The power-management is supported.
Module for sound cards based on Avance Logic ALS4000 PCI chip.
This module supports multiple cards, autoprobe and PnP.
The power-management is supported.
Module for AudioScience ASI soundcards
This module supports multiple cards. The driver requires the firmware loader support on kernel.
Module for ATI IXP 150/200/250/400 AC97 controllers.
This module supports one card and autoprobe.
ATI IXP has two different methods to control SPDIF output. One is over AC-link and another is over the “direct” SPDIF output. The implementation depends on the motherboard, and you’ll need to choose the correct one via spdif_aclink module option.
The power-management is supported.
Module for ATI IXP 150/200/250 AC97 modem controllers.
This module supports one card and autoprobe.
Note: The default index value of this module is -2, i.e. the first slot is excluded.
The power-management is supported.
Module for Aureal Vortex, Vortex2 and Advantage device.
This module supports all ADB PCM channels, ac97 mixer, SPDIF, hardware EQ, mpu401, gameport. A3D and wavetable support are still in development. Development and reverse engineering work is being coordinated at http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/openvortex/ SPDIF output has a copy of the AC97 codec output, unless you use the spdif pcm device, which allows raw data passthru. The hardware EQ hardware and SPDIF is only present in the Vortex2 and Advantage.
Note: Some ALSA mixer applications don’t handle the SPDIF sample rate control correctly. If you have problems regarding this, try another ALSA compliant mixer (alsamixer works).
Module for Aztech Sound Galaxy soundcards based on the Aztech AZT1605 chipset.
This module supports multiple cards. It does not support autoprobe: port, wss_port, irq and dma1 have to be specified. The other values are optional.
port needs to match the BASE ADDRESS jumper on the card (0x220 or 0x240) or the value stored in the card’s EEPROM for cards that have an EEPROM and their “CONFIG MODE” jumper set to “EEPROM SETTING”. The other values can be chosen freely from the options enumerated above.
If dma2 is specified and different from dma1, the card will operate in full-duplex mode. When dma1=3, only dma2=0 is valid and the only way to enable capture since only channels 0 and 1 are available for capture.
Generic settings are port=0x220 wss_port=0x530 irq=10 dma1=1 dma2=0 mpu_port=0x330 mpu_irq=9 fm_port=0x388.
Whatever IRQ and DMA channels you pick, be sure to reserve them for legacy ISA in your BIOS.
Module for Aztech Sound Galaxy soundcards based on the Aztech AZT2316 chipset.
This module supports multiple cards. It does not support autoprobe: port, wss_port, irq and dma1 have to be specified. The other values are optional.
port needs to match the BASE ADDRESS jumper on the card (0x220 or 0x240) or the value stored in the card’s EEPROM for cards that have an EEPROM and their “CONFIG MODE” jumper set to “EEPROM SETTING”. The other values can be chosen freely from the options enumerated above.
If dma2 is specified and different from dma1, the card will operate in full-duplex mode. When dma1=3, only dma2=0 is valid and the only way to enable capture since only channels 0 and 1 are available for capture.
Generic settings are port=0x220 wss_port=0x530 irq=10 dma1=1 dma2=0 mpu_port=0x330 mpu_irq=9 fm_port=0x388.
Whatever IRQ and DMA channels you pick, be sure to reserve them for legacy ISA in your BIOS.
Module for sound cards based on Aztech System AZT2320 ISA chip (PnP only).
This module supports multiple cards, PnP and autoprobe.
The power-management is supported.
Module for sound cards based on Aztech AZF3328 PCI chip.
This module supports multiple cards.
Module for video cards based on Bt87x chips.
This module supports multiple cards.
Note: The default index value of this module is -2, i.e. the first slot is excluded.
Module for Creative Audigy LS and SB Live 24bit
This module supports multiple cards.
Module for sound cards based on C-Media CMI8330 ISA chips.
with isapnp=0, the following options are available:
This module supports multiple cards and autoprobe.
The power-management is supported.
Module for C-Media CMI8338/8738/8768/8770 PCI sound cards.
This module supports autoprobe and multiple cards.
The power-management is supported.
Module for sound cards based on CS4231 ISA chips.
This module supports multiple cards. This module does not support autoprobe thus main port must be specified!!! Other ports are optional.
The power-management is supported.
Module for sound cards based on CS4232/CS4232A, CS4235/CS4236/CS4236B/CS4237B/CS4238B/CS4239 ISA chips.
with isapnp=0, the following options are available:
This module supports multiple cards. This module does not support autoprobe (if ISA PnP is not used) thus main port and control port must be specified!!! Other ports are optional.
The power-management is supported.
This module is aliased as snd-cs4232 since it provides the old snd-cs4232 functionality, too.
Module for Cirrus Logic CS4281 soundchip.
This module supports multiple cards.
The power-management is supported.
Module for PCI sound cards based on CS4610/CS4612/CS4614/CS4615/CS4622/ CS4624/CS4630/CS4280 PCI chips.
This module supports multiple cards and autoprobe. Usually external amp and CLKRUN controls are detected automatically from PCI sub vendor/device ids. If they don’t work, give the options above explicitly.
The power-management is supported.
Module for Cyrix/NatSemi Geode 5530 chip.
Module for multifunction CS5535 companion PCI device
The power-management is supported.
Module for Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi boards (20k1 / 20k2 chips)
This module supports multiple cards.
Module for Echoaudio Darla20
This module supports multiple cards. The driver requires the firmware loader support on kernel.
Module for Echoaudio Darla24
This module supports multiple cards. The driver requires the firmware loader support on kernel.
Module for Diamond Technologies DT-019X / Avance Logic ALS-007 (PnP only)
This module supports multiple cards. This module is enabled only with ISA PnP support.
The power-management is supported.
Module for the dummy sound card. This “card” doesn’t do any output or input, but you may use this module for any application which requires a sound card (like RealPlayer).
When multiple PCM devices are created, snd-dummy gives different behavior to each PCM device: * 0 = interleaved with mmap support * 1 = non-interleaved with mmap support * 2 = interleaved without mmap * 3 = non-interleaved without mmap
As default, snd-dummy drivers doesn’t allocate the real buffers but either ignores read/write or mmap a single dummy page to all buffer pages, in order to save the resources. If your apps need the read/ written buffer data to be consistent, pass fake_buffer=0 option.
The power-management is supported.
Module for Echoaudio 3G cards (Gina3G/Layla3G)
This module supports multiple cards. The driver requires the firmware loader support on kernel.
Module for EMU10K1/EMU10k2 based PCI sound cards.
This module supports multiple cards and autoprobe.
Input & Output configurations [extin/extout] * Creative Card wo/Digital out [0x0003/0x1f03] * Creative Card w/Digital out [0x0003/0x1f0f] * Creative Card w/Digital CD in [0x000f/0x1f0f] * Creative Card wo/Digital out + LiveDrive [0x3fc3/0x1fc3] * Creative Card w/Digital out + LiveDrive [0x3fc3/0x1fcf] * Creative Card w/Digital CD in + LiveDrive [0x3fcf/0x1fcf] * Creative Card wo/Digital out + Digital I/O 2 [0x0fc3/0x1f0f] * Creative Card w/Digital out + Digital I/O 2 [0x0fc3/0x1f0f] * Creative Card w/Digital CD in + Digital I/O 2 [0x0fcf/0x1f0f] * Creative Card 5.1/w Digital out + LiveDrive [0x3fc3/0x1fff] * Creative Card 5.1 (c) 2003 [0x3fc3/0x7cff] * Creative Card all ins and outs [0x3fff/0x7fff]
The power-management is supported.
Module for Creative Emu10k1X (SB Live Dell OEM version)
This module supports multiple cards.
Module for Ensoniq AudioPCI ES1370 PCI sound cards.
This module supports multiple cards and autoprobe.
The power-management is supported.
Module for Ensoniq AudioPCI ES1371 PCI sound cards.
This module supports multiple cards and autoprobe.
The power-management is supported.
Module for ESS AudioDrive ES-1688 and ES-688 sound cards.
with isapnp=0, the following additional options are available:
This module supports multiple cards and autoprobe (without MPU-401 port) and PnP with the ES968 chip.
Module for ESS AudioDrive ES-18xx sound cards.
with isapnp=0, the following options are available:
This module supports multiple cards, ISA PnP and autoprobe (without MPU-401 port if native ISA PnP routines are not used). When dma2 is equal with dma1, the driver works as half-duplex.
The power-management is supported.
Module for sound cards based on ESS Solo-1 (ES1938,ES1946) chips.
This module supports multiple cards and autoprobe.
The power-management is supported.
Module for sound cards based on ESS Maestro-1/2/2E (ES1968/ES1978) chips.
This module supports multiple cards and autoprobe.
The power-management is supported.
Module for ForteMedia FM801 based PCI sound cards.
This module supports multiple cards and autoprobe.
The power-management is supported.
Module for Echoaudio Gina20
This module supports multiple cards. The driver requires the firmware loader support on kernel.
Module for Echoaudio Gina24
This module supports multiple cards. The driver requires the firmware loader support on kernel.
Module for Gravis UltraSound Classic sound card.
This module supports multiple cards and autoprobe.
Module for Gravis UltraSound Extreme (Synergy ViperMax) sound card.
This module supports multiple cards and autoprobe (without MPU-401 port).
Module for Gravis UltraSound MAX sound card.
This module supports multiple cards and autoprobe.
Module for Intel HD Audio (ICH6, ICH6M, ESB2, ICH7, ICH8, ICH9, ICH10, PCH, SCH), ATI SB450, SB600, R600, RS600, RS690, RS780, RV610, RV620, RV630, RV635, RV670, RV770, VIA VT8251/VT8237A, SIS966, ULI M5461
[Multiple options for each card instance]
[Single (global) options]
This module supports multiple cards and autoprobe.
See hd-audio/notes.rst for more details about HD-audio driver.
Each codec may have a model table for different configurations. If your machine isn’t listed there, the default (usually minimal) configuration is set up. You can pass model=<name> option to specify a certain model in such a case. There are different models depending on the codec chip. The list of available models is found in hd-audio/models.rst.
The model name generic is treated as a special case. When this model is given, the driver uses the generic codec parser without “codec-patch”. It’s sometimes good for testing and debugging.
If the default configuration doesn’t work and one of the above matches with your device, report it together with alsa-info.sh output (with --no-upload option) to kernel bugzilla or alsa-devel ML (see the section Links and Addresses).
power_save and power_save_controller options are for power-saving mode. See powersave.txt for details.
Note 2: If you get click noises on output, try the module option position_fix=1 or 2. position_fix=1 will use the SD_LPIB register value without FIFO size correction as the current DMA pointer. position_fix=2 will make the driver to use the position buffer instead of reading SD_LPIB register. (Usually SD_LPIB register is more accurate than the position buffer.)
position_fix=3 is specific to VIA devices. The position of the capture stream is checked from both LPIB and POSBUF values. position_fix=4 is a combination mode, using LPIB for playback and POSBUF for capture.
NB: If you get many azx_get_response timeout messages at loading, it’s likely a problem of interrupts (e.g. ACPI irq routing). Try to boot with options like pci=noacpi. Also, you can try single_cmd=1 module option. This will switch the communication method between HDA controller and codecs to the single immediate commands instead of CORB/RIRB. Basically, the single command mode is provided only for BIOS, and you won’t get unsolicited events, too. But, at least, this works independently from the irq. Remember this is a last resort, and should be avoided as much as possible...
MORE NOTES ON azx_get_response timeout PROBLEMS: On some hardware, you may need to add a proper probe_mask option to avoid the azx_get_response timeout problem above, instead. This occurs when the access to non-existing or non-working codec slot (likely a modem one) causes a stall of the communication via HD-audio bus. You can see which codec slots are probed by enabling CONFIG_SND_DEBUG_VERBOSE, or simply from the file name of the codec proc files. Then limit the slots to probe by probe_mask option. For example, probe_mask=1 means to probe only the first slot, and probe_mask=4 means only the third slot.
The power-management is supported.
Module for RME Hammerfall DSP audio interface(s)
This module supports multiple cards.
Note: The firmware data can be automatically loaded via hotplug when CONFIG_FW_LOADER is set. Otherwise, you need to load the firmware via hdsploader utility included in alsa-tools package. The firmware data is found in alsa-firmware package.
Note: snd-page-alloc module does the job which snd-hammerfall-mem module did formerly. It will allocate the buffers in advance when any HDSP cards are found. To make the buffer allocation sure, load snd-page-alloc module in the early stage of boot sequence. See Early Buffer Allocation section.
Module for RME HDSP MADI board.
See hdspm.txt for details.
Module for Envy24 (ICE1712) based PCI sound cards.
This module supports multiple cards and autoprobe. Note: The consumer part is not used with all Envy24 based cards (for example in the MidiMan Delta siree).
Note: The supported board is detected by reading EEPROM or PCI SSID (if EEPROM isn’t available). You can override the model by passing model module option in case that the driver isn’t configured properly or you want to try another type for testing.
Module for Envy24HT (VT/ICE1724), Envy24PT (VT1720) based PCI sound cards.
This module supports multiple cards and autoprobe.
Note: The supported board is detected by reading EEPROM or PCI SSID (if EEPROM isn’t available). You can override the model by passing model module option in case that the driver isn’t configured properly or you want to try another type for testing.
Module for Echoaudio Indigo
This module supports multiple cards. The driver requires the firmware loader support on kernel.
Module for Echoaudio Indigo DJ
This module supports multiple cards. The driver requires the firmware loader support on kernel.
Module for Echoaudio Indigo IO
This module supports multiple cards. The driver requires the firmware loader support on kernel.
Module for AC‘97 motherboards from Intel and compatibles.
This module supports one chip and autoprobe.
Note: the latest driver supports auto-detection of chip clock. if you still encounter too fast playback, specify the clock explicitly via the module option ac97_clock=41194.
Joystick/MIDI ports are not supported by this driver. If your motherboard has these devices, use the ns558 or snd-mpu401 modules, respectively.
The power-management is supported.
Module for Intel ICH (i8x0) chipset MC97 modems.
This module supports one card and autoprobe.
Note: The default index value of this module is -2, i.e. the first slot is excluded.
The power-management is supported.
Module for Gravis UltraSound PnP, Dynasonic 3-D/Pro, STB Sound Rage 32 and other sound cards based on AMD InterWave (tm) chip.
with isapnp=0, the following options are available:
This module supports multiple cards, autoprobe and ISA PnP.
Module for UltraSound 32-Pro (sound card from STB used by Compaq) and other sound cards based on AMD InterWave (tm) chip with TEA6330T circuit for extended control of bass, treble and master volume.
with isapnp=0, the following options are available:
This module supports multiple cards, autoprobe and ISA PnP.
Module for Media Vision Jazz16 chipset. The chipset consists of 3 chips: MVD1216 + MVA416 + MVA514.
This module supports multiple cards.
Module for Echoaudio Layla20
This module supports multiple cards. The driver requires the firmware loader support on kernel.
Module for Echoaudio Layla24
This module supports multiple cards. The driver requires the firmware loader support on kernel.
Module for Allegro/Maestro3 chips
This module supports autoprobe and multiple chips.
Note: the binding of amplifier is dependent on hardware. If there is no sound even though all channels are unmuted, try to specify other gpio connection via amp_gpio option. For example, a Panasonic notebook might need amp_gpio=0x0d option.
The power-management is supported.
Module for Echoaudio Mia
This module supports multiple cards. The driver requires the firmware loader support on kernel.
Module for Miro soundcards: miroSOUND PCM 1 pro, miroSOUND PCM 12, miroSOUND PCM 20 Radio.
Module for Digigram miXart8 sound cards.
This module supports multiple cards. Note: One miXart8 board will be represented as 4 alsa cards. See MIXART.txt for details.
When the driver is compiled as a module and the hotplug firmware is supported, the firmware data is loaded via hotplug automatically. Install the necessary firmware files in alsa-firmware package. When no hotplug fw loader is available, you need to load the firmware via mixartloader utility in alsa-tools package.
Module for Echoaudio Mona
This module supports multiple cards. The driver requires the firmware loader support on kernel.
Module for MPU-401 UART devices.
This module supports multiple devices and PnP.
Module for Turtle Beach MultiSound Classic, Tahiti or Monterey soundcards.
The driver requires firmware files turtlebeach/msndinit.bin and turtlebeach/msndperm.bin in the proper firmware directory.
See Documentation/sound/oss/MultiSound for important information about this driver. Note that it has been discontinued, but the Voyetra Turtle Beach knowledge base entry for it is still available at http://www.turtlebeach.com
Module for Turtle Beach MultiSound Pinnacle/Fiji soundcards.
The driver requires firmware files turtlebeach/pndspini.bin and turtlebeach/pndsperm.bin in the proper firmware directory.
Module for MOTU MidiTimePiece AV multiport MIDI (on the parallel port).
Module supports only 1 card. This module has no enable option.
Module for Ego Systems (ESI) Miditerminal 4140
This module supports multiple devices. Requires parport (CONFIG_PARPORT).
Module for NeoMagic NM256AV/ZX chips
This module supports one chip and autoprobe.
The power-management is supported.
Note: on some notebooks the buffer address cannot be detected automatically, or causes hang-up during initialization. In such a case, specify the buffer top address explicitly via the buffer_top option. For example, Sony F250: buffer_top=0x25a800 Sony F270: buffer_top=0x272800 The driver supports only ac97 codec. It’s possible to force to initialize/use ac97 although it’s not detected. In such a case, use force_ac97=1 option - but NO guarantee whether it works!
Note: The NM256 chip can be linked internally with non-AC97 codecs. This driver supports only the AC97 codec, and won’t work with machines with other (most likely CS423x or OPL3SAx) chips, even though the device is detected in lspci. In such a case, try other drivers, e.g. snd-cs4232 or snd-opl3sa2. Some has ISA-PnP but some doesn’t have ISA PnP. You’ll need to specify isapnp=0 and proper hardware parameters in the case without ISA PnP.
Note: some laptops need a workaround for AC97 RESET. For the known hardware like Dell Latitude LS and Sony PCG-F305, this workaround is enabled automatically. For other laptops with a hard freeze, you can try reset_workaround=1 option.
Note: Dell Latitude CSx laptops have another problem regarding AC97 RESET. On these laptops, reset_workaround2 option is turned on as default. This option is worth to try if the previous reset_workaround option doesn’t help.
Note: This driver is really crappy. It’s a porting from the OSS driver, which is a result of black-magic reverse engineering. The detection of codec will fail if the driver is loaded after X-server as described above. You might be able to force to load the module, but it may result in hang-up. Hence, make sure that you load this module before X if you encounter this kind of problem.
Module for Yamaha OPL3-SA2/SA3 sound cards.
with isapnp=0, the following options are available:
This module supports multiple cards and ISA PnP. It does not support autoprobe (if ISA PnP is not used) thus all ports must be specified!!!
The power-management is supported.
Module for sound cards based on OPTi 82c92x and Analog Devices AD1848 chips. Module works with OAK Mozart cards as well.
with isapnp=0, the following options are available:
This module supports only one card, autoprobe and PnP.
Module for sound cards based on OPTi 82c92x and Crystal CS4231 chips.
with isapnp=0, the following options are available:
This module supports only one card, autoprobe and PnP.
Module for sound cards based on OPTi 82c93x chips.
with isapnp=0, the following options are available:
This module supports only one card, autoprobe and PnP.
Module for sound cards based on the C-Media CMI8786/8787/8788 chip:
This module supports autoprobe and multiple cards.
Module for internal PC-Speaker.
This module supports system beeps, some kind of PCM playback and even a few mixer controls.
Module for Midiman Portman 2x4 parallel port MIDI interface
This module supports multiple cards.
Module for PowerMac, iMac and iBook on-board soundchips
Module supports autoprobe a chip.
Note: the driver may have problems regarding endianness.
The power-management is supported.
Module for AC97 driver for the Intel PXA2xx chip
For ARM architecture only.
The power-management is supported.
Module for Conexant Riptide chip
This module supports multiple cards. The driver requires the firmware loader support on kernel. You need to install the firmware file riptide.hex to the standard firmware path (e.g. /lib/firmware).
Module for RME Digi32, Digi32 Pro and Digi32/8 (Sek’d Prodif32, Prodif96 and Prodif Gold) sound cards.
This module supports multiple cards.
Module for RME Digi96, Digi96/8 and Digi96/8 PRO/PAD/PST sound cards.
This module supports multiple cards.
Module for RME Digi9652 (Hammerfall, Hammerfall-Light) sound cards.
This module supports multiple cards.
Note: snd-page-alloc module does the job which snd-hammerfall-mem module did formerly. It will allocate the buffers in advance when any RME9652 cards are found. To make the buffer allocation sure, load snd-page-alloc module in the early stage of boot sequence. See Early Buffer Allocation section.
Module for Philips UDA1341TS on Compaq iPAQ H3600 sound card.
Module supports only one card. Module has no enable and index options.
The power-management is supported.
Module for 8-bit SoundBlaster cards: SoundBlaster 1.0, SoundBlaster 2.0, SoundBlaster Pro
This module supports multiple cards and autoprobe.
The power-management is supported.
Module for 16-bit SoundBlaster cards: SoundBlaster 16 (PnP), SoundBlaster AWE 32 (PnP), SoundBlaster AWE 64 PnP
with isapnp=0, the following options are available:
This module supports multiple cards, autoprobe and ISA PnP.
Note: To use Vibra16X cards in 16-bit half duplex mode, you must disable 16bit DMA with dma16 = -1 module parameter. Also, all Sound Blaster 16 type cards can operate in 16-bit half duplex mode through 8-bit DMA channel by disabling their 16-bit DMA channel.
The power-management is supported.
Module for Gallant SC-6000 soundcard and later models: SC-6600 and SC-7000.
This module supports multiple cards.
This card is also known as Audio Excel DSP 16 or Zoltrix AV302.
Module for ENSONIQ SoundScape cards.
This module supports multiple cards.
The driver requires the firmware loader support on kernel.
Module for AMD7930 sound chips found on Sparcs.
This module supports multiple cards.
Module for CS4231 sound chips found on Sparcs.
This module supports multiple cards.
Module for DBRI sound chips found on Sparcs.
This module supports multiple cards.
Module for Turtle Beach Maui, Tropez and Tropez+ sound cards.
with isapnp=0, the following options are available:
The below are options for wavefront_synth features:
This module supports multiple cards and ISA PnP.
Note: the firmware file wavefront.os was located in the earlier version in /etc. Now it’s loaded via firmware loader, and must be in the proper firmware path, such as /lib/firmware. Copy (or symlink) the file appropriately if you get an error regarding firmware downloading after upgrading the kernel.
Module for S3 SonicVibes PCI sound cards. * PINE Schubert 32 PCI
This module supports multiple cards and autoprobe.
Module for UART16550A serial MIDI ports.
This module supports multiple cards. This module does not support autoprobe thus the main port must be specified!!! Other options are optional.
Module for Trident 4DWave DX/NX sound cards. * Best Union Miss Melody 4DWave PCI * HIS 4DWave PCI * Warpspeed ONSpeed 4DWave PCI * AzTech PCI 64-Q3D * Addonics SV 750 * CHIC True Sound 4Dwave * Shark Predator4D-PCI * Jaton SonicWave 4D * SiS SI7018 PCI Audio * Hoontech SoundTrack Digital 4DWave NX
This module supports multiple cards and autoprobe.
The power-management is supported.
Module for the Edirol UA-101/UA-1000 audio/MIDI interfaces.
This module supports multiple devices, autoprobe and hotplugging.
Module for USB audio and USB MIDI devices.
This module supports multiple devices, autoprobe and hotplugging.
NB: nrpacks parameter can be modified dynamically via sysfs. Don’t put the value over 20. Changing via sysfs has no sanity check.
NB: ignore_ctl_error=1 may help when you get an error at accessing the mixer element such as URB error -22. This happens on some buggy USB device or the controller.
NB: quirk_alias option is provided only for testing / development. If you want to have a proper support, contact to upstream for adding the matching quirk in the driver code statically.
Module for caiaq UB audio interfaces,
This module supports multiple devices, autoprobe and hotplugging.
Module for Tascam USB US-122, US-224 and US-428 devices.
This module supports multiple devices, autoprobe and hotplugging.
Note: you need to load the firmware via usx2yloader utility included in alsa-tools and alsa-firmware packages.
Module for AC‘97 motherboards based on VIA 82C686A/686B, 8233, 8233A, 8233C, 8235, 8237 (south) bridge.
This module supports one chip and autoprobe.
Note: on some SMP motherboards like MSI 694D the interrupts might not be generated properly. In such a case, please try to set the SMP (or MPS) version on BIOS to 1.1 instead of default value 1.4. Then the interrupt number will be assigned under 15. You might also upgrade your BIOS.
Note: VIA8233/5/7 (not VIA8233A) can support DXS (direct sound) channels as the first PCM. On these channels, up to 4 streams can be played at the same time, and the controller can perform sample rate conversion with separate rates for each channel. As default (dxs_support = 0), 48k fixed rate is chosen except for the known devices since the output is often noisy except for 48k on some mother boards due to the bug of BIOS. Please try once dxs_support=5 and if it works on other sample rates (e.g. 44.1kHz of mp3 playback), please let us know the PCI subsystem vendor/device id’s (output of lspci -nv). If dxs_support=5 does not work, try dxs_support=4; if it doesn’t work too, try dxs_support=1. (dxs_support=1 is usually for old motherboards. The correct implemented board should work with 4 or 5.) If it still doesn’t work and the default setting is ok, dxs_support=3 is the right choice. If the default setting doesn’t work at all, try dxs_support=2 to disable the DXS channels. In any cases, please let us know the result and the subsystem vendor/device ids. See Links and Addresses below.
Note: for the MPU401 on VIA823x, use snd-mpu401 driver additionally. The mpu_port option is for VIA686 chips only.
The power-management is supported.
Module for VIA82xx AC97 modem
This module supports one card and autoprobe.
Note: The default index value of this module is -2, i.e. the first slot is excluded.
The power-management is supported.
Module for virtual rawmidi devices. This module creates virtual rawmidi devices which communicate to the corresponding ALSA sequencer ports.
This module supports multiple cards.
Module for sound cards based on the Asus AV66/AV100/AV200 chips, i.e., Xonar D1, DX, D2, D2X, DS, DSX, Essence ST (Deluxe), Essence STX (II), HDAV1.3 (Deluxe), and HDAV1.3 Slim.
This module supports autoprobe and multiple cards.
Module for Digigram VX-Pocket VX222, V222 v2 and Mic cards.
This module supports multiple cards.
When the driver is compiled as a module and the hotplug firmware is supported, the firmware data is loaded via hotplug automatically. Install the necessary firmware files in alsa-firmware package. When no hotplug fw loader is available, you need to load the firmware via vxloader utility in alsa-tools package. To invoke vxloader automatically, add the following to /etc/modprobe.d/alsa.conf
install snd-vx222 /sbin/modprobe --first-time -i snd-vx222\
&& /usr/bin/vxloader
(for 2.2/2.4 kernels, add post-install /usr/bin/vxloader to /etc/modules.conf, instead.) IBL size defines the interrupts period for PCM. The smaller size gives smaller latency but leads to more CPU consumption, too. The size is usually aligned to 126. As default (=0), the smallest size is chosen. The possible IBL values can be found in /proc/asound/cardX/vx-status proc file.
The power-management is supported.
Module for Digigram VX-Pocket VX2 and 440 PCMCIA cards.
This module supports multiple cards. The module is compiled only when PCMCIA is supported on kernel.
With the older 2.6.x kernel, to activate the driver via the card manager, you’ll need to set up /etc/pcmcia/vxpocket.conf. See the sound/pcmcia/vx/vxpocket.c. 2.6.13 or later kernel requires no longer require a config file.
When the driver is compiled as a module and the hotplug firmware is supported, the firmware data is loaded via hotplug automatically. Install the necessary firmware files in alsa-firmware package. When no hotplug fw loader is available, you need to load the firmware via vxloader utility in alsa-tools package.
About capture IBL, see the description of snd-vx222 module.
Note: snd-vxp440 driver is merged to snd-vxpocket driver since ALSA 1.0.10.
The power-management is supported.
Module for Yamaha PCI chips (YMF72x, YMF74x & YMF75x).
This module supports autoprobe and multiple chips.
The power-management is supported.
Module for Sound Core PDAudioCF sound card.
The power-management is supported.
The ac97_quirk option is used to enable/override the workaround for specific devices on drivers for on-board AC‘97 controllers like snd-intel8x0. Some hardware have swapped output pins between Master and Headphone, or Surround (thanks to confusion of AC‘97 specifications from version to version :-)
The driver provides the auto-detection of known problematic devices, but some might be unknown or wrongly detected. In such a case, pass the proper value with this option.
The following strings are accepted:
For backward compatibility, the corresponding integer value -1, 0, ... are accepted, too.
For example, if Master volume control has no effect on your device but only Headphone does, pass ac97_quirk=hp_only module option.
When the kernel is configured with ISA-PnP support, the modules supporting the isapnp cards will have module options isapnp. If this option is set, only the ISA-PnP devices will be probed. For probing the non ISA-PnP cards, you have to pass isapnp=0 option together with the proper i/o and irq configuration.
When the kernel is configured without ISA-PnP support, isapnp option will be not built in.
The ALSA drivers can be loaded automatically on demand by defining module aliases. The string snd-card-%1 is requested for ALSA native devices where %i is sound card number from zero to seven.
To auto-load an ALSA driver for OSS services, define the string sound-slot-%i where %i means the slot number for OSS, which corresponds to the card index of ALSA. Usually, define this as the same card module.
An example configuration for a single emu10k1 card is like below:
----- /etc/modprobe.d/alsa.conf
alias snd-card-0 snd-emu10k1
alias sound-slot-0 snd-emu10k1
----- /etc/modprobe.d/alsa.conf
The available number of auto-loaded sound cards depends on the module option cards_limit of snd module. As default it’s set to 1. To enable the auto-loading of multiple cards, specify the number of sound cards in that option.
When multiple cards are available, it’d better to specify the index number for each card via module option, too, so that the order of cards is kept consistent.
An example configuration for two sound cards is like below:
----- /etc/modprobe.d/alsa.conf
# ALSA portion
options snd cards_limit=2
alias snd-card-0 snd-interwave
alias snd-card-1 snd-ens1371
options snd-interwave index=0
options snd-ens1371 index=1
# OSS/Free portion
alias sound-slot-0 snd-interwave
alias sound-slot-1 snd-ens1371
----- /etc/modprobe.d/alsa.conf
In this example, the interwave card is always loaded as the first card (index 0) and ens1371 as the second (index 1).
Alternative (and new) way to fixate the slot assignment is to use slots option of snd module. In the case above, specify like the following:
options snd slots=snd-interwave,snd-ens1371
Then, the first slot (#0) is reserved for snd-interwave driver, and the second (#1) for snd-ens1371. You can omit index option in each driver if slots option is used (although you can still have them at the same time as long as they don’t conflict).
The slots option is especially useful for avoiding the possible hot-plugging and the resultant slot conflict. For example, in the case above again, the first two slots are already reserved. If any other driver (e.g. snd-usb-audio) is loaded before snd-interwave or snd-ens1371, it will be assigned to the third or later slot.
When a module name is given with ‘!’, the slot will be given for any modules but that name. For example, slots=!snd-pcsp will reserve the first slot for any modules but snd-pcsp.
/dev/snd/pcmC0D0[c|p] -> /dev/audio0 (/dev/audio) -> minor 4
/dev/snd/pcmC0D0[c|p] -> /dev/dsp0 (/dev/dsp) -> minor 3
/dev/snd/pcmC0D1[c|p] -> /dev/adsp0 (/dev/adsp) -> minor 12
/dev/snd/pcmC1D0[c|p] -> /dev/audio1 -> minor 4+16 = 20
/dev/snd/pcmC1D0[c|p] -> /dev/dsp1 -> minor 3+16 = 19
/dev/snd/pcmC1D1[c|p] -> /dev/adsp1 -> minor 12+16 = 28
/dev/snd/pcmC2D0[c|p] -> /dev/audio2 -> minor 4+32 = 36
/dev/snd/pcmC2D0[c|p] -> /dev/dsp2 -> minor 3+32 = 39
/dev/snd/pcmC2D1[c|p] -> /dev/adsp2 -> minor 12+32 = 44
The first number from /dev/snd/pcmC{X}D{Y}[c|p] expression means sound card number and second means device number. The ALSA devices have either c or p suffix indicating the direction, capture and playback, respectively.
Please note that the device mapping above may be varied via the module options of snd-pcm-oss module.
optional parameters
Example:
echo "x11amp 128 16384" > /proc/asound/card0/pcm0p/oss
echo "squake 0 0 disable" > /proc/asound/card0/pcm0c/oss
echo "rvplayer 0 0 block" > /proc/asound/card0/pcm0p/oss
Some drivers (e.g. hdsp) require the large contiguous buffers, and sometimes it’s too late to find such spaces when the driver module is actually loaded due to memory fragmentation. You can pre-allocate the PCM buffers by loading snd-page-alloc module and write commands to its proc file in prior, for example, in the early boot stage like /etc/init.d/*.local scripts.
Reading the proc file /proc/drivers/snd-page-alloc shows the current usage of page allocation. In writing, you can send the following commands to the snd-page-alloc driver:
VENDOR and DEVICE are PCI vendor and device IDs. They take integer numbers (0x prefix is needed for the hex). MASK is the PCI DMA mask. Pass 0 if not restricted. SIZE is the size of each buffer to allocate. You can pass k and m suffix for KB and MB. The max number is 16MB. BUFFERS is the number of buffers to allocate. It must be greater than 0. The max number is 4.
This will erase the all pre-allocated buffers which are not in use.